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Second Sketch for `The Battle of Trafalgar' circa 1823
Oil on canvas
902 x 1213 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00556
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| This and the painting which
hangs below it are sketches for a painting of the Battle of Trafalgar
that Turner was commissioned to paint by George IV. The king wanted
a large picture of the battle to hang in St James's Palace as part
of a series of British victories. The finished painting is now in
the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.
The battle had taken place in 1805. Lord Nelson had prevented Napoleon
from gaining control of the Channel, but had then been killed on
board his own ship, the Victory, which can be seen in the centre
of this sketch.
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First Sketch for The Battle of Trafalgar
circa 1823
Oil on canvas
902 x 1213 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N05480
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| This and the painting above it are sketches
for a painting of the Battle of Trafalgar which was commissioned from
Turner by George IV in 1822. The celebrated victory had taken place
seventeen years earlier, on 21 October 1805. It was, however, a difficult
subject to paint, as it combined celebration and tragedy: the victory
had confirmed Britain's maritime supremacy and had removed the threat
of invasion by Napoleon's forces, but it had also seen the death of
Lord Nelson, who was struck down by a French sniper on the quarterdeck
of his flagship, the Victory, seen here in the centre of the composition. |
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Mercury Sent to Admonish
Aeneas exhibited 1850
Oil on canvas
902 x 1206 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00553
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| This is the first of four pictures
based on Virgil's story of Dido and Aeneas. The Trojan prince, Aeneas,
was destined to be the founder of Rome, but delayed his journey to
Italy because of his love affair with Dido, Queen of Carthage. The
four paintings were Turner's last exhibits at the Royal Academy; only
three now survive.
In this painting Aeneas is on the left, attended by Cupid. Mercury
has come to tell him off for having neglected his fleet of ships.
However, despite the title, Mercury is not visible in the painting;
perhaps he has melted into thin air, as Virgil describes.
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The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds
of the Victory 1806-8
Oil on canvas
1708 x 2388 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00480
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| This large, finished painting
of the Battle of Trafalgar was first shown in public in Turner's gallery
in 1806, the year after Nelson's famous victory. One of Turner's colleagues
from the Royal Academy recorded in his diary 'Turner's I went to and
saw His picture of the Battle of Trafalgar. It appeared to me to be
a very crude, unfinished performance, the figures miserably bad.'
We don't know whether he told Turner what he thought, but Turner did
re-work the painting before he showed it in public again, a couple
of years later.
Later still Turner displayed the painting in his gallery again,
as we show here. He had, in the meantime, received a royal commission
to paint another picture of the battle. He decided to show this
earlier painting beside the two sketches for the later royal commission:
you can see these sketches, one above the other, to the left of
this painting.
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The Departure of the Fleet exhibited 1850
Oil on canvas
899 x 1203 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00554
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| Turner's last appearance at
the annual Royal Academy exhibitions was in 1850, when he showed four
pictures of the story of Dido and Aeneas. This is the concluding scene,
which shows Dido and her attendants watching Aeneas as he leaves Carthage
for Italy. Aeneas had been told that it was his destiny to become
the founder of Rome, but his love for Dido had tempted him to stay
in Carthage and put off his final journey to Italy. After his departure
the heartbroken Dido killed herself.
When Turner had shown this painting in the Royal Academy he had
printed lines from his poem The Fallacies of Hope in the catalogue;
but a reviewer writing in the Spectator said that the only fallacy
was there being 'any hope of understanding what the picture means.'
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The Fall of an Avalanche in the Grisons exhibited 1810
Oil on canvas
902 x 1200 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00489
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| Turner had toured the Alps in 1802, but his
route had not included the Grisons. He may have been prompted to imagine
this scene by newspaper reports of a disastrous avalanche there in
1810, when 25 people were killed in a single chalet; this painting
shows a chalet being crushed by an enormous rock. The subject would
have had other, more sinister echoes for contemporary viewers, since
it was by crushing the Grisons provinces that Napoleon had begun his
invasion of the Swiss republic. |
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Fishing upon the Blythe-Sand, Tide Setting
In exhibited 1809
Oil on canvas
889 x 1194 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00496
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| In complete contrast to the scene of horrific
disaster hung above it, this painting shows bright, calm weather at
Blythe Sands, off Sheerness, at the mouth of the Thames, facing Canvey
Island. Towards the end of his life Turner's gallery became less a
showroom and more of a repository for unsold pictures: letters suggest
that Turner offered, but failed to sell, this picture to his patron
Sir John Leicester in 1810, and also that he refused to sell it to
Sir George Beaumont. Much later, the canvas seems to have been used
in Turner's house as a cat flap. |
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Frosty Morning exhibited 1813
Oil on canvas
1137 x 1746 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00492
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| Turner was particularly fond
of the painting shown above the fireplace, which is why it remained
in his gallery rather than being sold to a collector. It records a
scene he witnessed while travelling in Yorkshire, and is said to include
his eldest daughter, Evelina (in blue) and his 'crop-eared bay' horse
(pulling the cart).
The painting was also much admired by contemporary and later critics.
The Spectator saw in it 'the true tone of nature … imitated
to perfection'. Years after Turner's death, Claude Monet saw it
and declared it had been painted with 'wide-open eyes'.
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Van Tromp Returning after the Battle off the Dogger Bank exhibited
1833
Oil on canvas
905 x 1206 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00537
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| This is one of a group of pictures Turner
painted in the 1830s that were inspired by the examples of seventeenth-century
Dutch marine painters. Turner, of course, had years of experience
of observing and recording life at sea, but his early viewers sometimes
challenged the accuracy of his works. Here, for example, Turner's
title refers to the Anglo-Dutch war at sea in 1652-4, but the rigging
on the state barge in the foreground is of a later date. |
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Fishing Boats Bringing a Disabled Ship into Port Ruysdael exhibited
1844
Oil on canvas
914 x 1232 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00536
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| Turner again pays tribute to the seventeenth-century
Dutch painters he so admired in the name he gives to the imaginary
port shown in this painting: Port Ruysdael. He remained an admirer
of the work of Salomon von Ruysdael throughout his career. Like many
of Turner's late exhibited paintings, there is astonishingly little
in the way of finished details in this painting; the distant sails
of the ship are mere blocks of dirty white with rough, summary outlines. |
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Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth exhibited 1842
Oil on canvas
914 x 1219 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00530
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| The steam-boat at the heart of the vortex
in this paintings seems to symbolise mankind's futile efforts to combat
the forces of nature. The lengthy title provides an elaborate description
of exactly what the paddle steamer was doing in such terrible weather
conditions; it also includes a personal anecdote claiming that Turner
actually witnessed the storm. Later, Turner claimed to a friend that
he had been tied to the mast of a ship in order to experience the
drama, and had not expected to survive. In fact, this story, and its
location in Harwich, were probably invented, but the painting itself
is still a strikingly convincing evocation of a storm at sea, the
result of a lifetime's experience on Turner's part. |
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The Garreteer's Petition exhibited 1809
Oil on wood
552 x 791 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00482
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| Turner rarely painted explicitly figurative
works. He seems to have produced this one out of rivalry with the
David Wilkie, whose genre paintings had taken the London art world
by storm in 1805. He shows a young poet in his attic room at night,
struggling for inspiration. The poet's great ambitions are suggested
by the picture on his wall of Mount Parnassus, the home of the Greek
Muses. The juxtaposition of these lofty aims with the squalid reality
of his surroundings suggests that Turner's intentions were satirical
although, since he also wrote poetry himself at this stage, he may
have had some sympathy with the poet's plight. |
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Crossing the Brook exhibited 1815
Oil on canvas
1930 x 1651 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00497
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| This is one of Turner's most
ambitious representations of the British landscape. It is a view of
the Tamar valley, the result of many studies made during trips to
in Devon. However contemporaries would also have recognised its references
to the grand, classical landscapes of the seventeenth-century painter
of Italy, Claude Lorrain.
Turner first exhibited this painting in 1815, the year of battle
of Waterloo, when its celebration of the British landscape would
have seemed especially patriotic. However it also had personal significance
for Turner: the two girls in the foreground are said to be his two
illegitimate daughters. This may explain his reluctance to sell
the picture, which remained in his gallery decades after it had
been painted.
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London from Greenwich Park exhibited
1809
Oil on canvas
902 x 1200 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00483
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This corner of the gallery contains
a number of images of Britain: in this case a view out over the Thames,
a prime symbol of Britain's commercial and imperial power. The city
of London is only a faint presence in the distance, beyond the Royal
Naval Hospital and the Queen's House; the dome of St Paul's Cathedral
is just visible on the skyline in the centre of the painting. The
verses Turner wrote to accompany the painting suggest his feelings
towards the city were ambivalent:
'where thy spires pierce the doubtful air As gleams of hope amidst
a world of care.' |
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Harvest Dinner, Kingston Bank exhibited
1809
Oil on canvas
902 x 1210 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00491
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| This painting was first shown in Turner's
gallery in 1809; sixteen years later, a critic from the Spectator
saw it there again, and described it as one of the 'splendid paintings
that enrich the walls'. When it was first exhibited, the artist John
Sell Cotman was intrigued by its spare composition and made a surreptitious
pencil copy of it. This was expressly against Turner's wishes - he
forbade any drawing or copying in his gallery, and would certainly
have ordered Cotman to destroy his drawing if he had found out about
it. |
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Watteau Study by Fresnoy's Rules exhibited
1831
Oil on oak panel
400 x 692 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00514
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This is a tribute to the eighteenth-century
French painter, Antoine Watteau. Watteau stands in the centre of the
composition, with examples of his paintings displayed behind him.
Turner combines this with a practical demonstration of the colour
theories of the French writer, du Fresnoy, whose ideas he quoted when
he first exhibited this painting: 'White when it shines with unstained
lustre clear May bear an object back, or bring it near.'
This and its companion picture (Turner's tribute to Van Dyck, Lord
Percy under Attainder) are hung as a pair either side of his view
of Richmond Hill, on the end wall of the gallery. |
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War. The Exile and the Rock Limpet exhibited
1842
Oil on canvas
794 x 794 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00529
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| This painting is a pair to Peace - Burial
at Sea, which stands on the floor on the other side of the end wall
of the gallery. Here, Turner embodies the idea of war in the figure
of Napoleon, seen in exile and under guard against an apocalyptic
sunset. He is watching, and thinking about, the limpet which, in spite
of its tiny size and enforced habit of attachment, is at least free
to live its natural existence. |
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England: Richmond Hill, on the Prince Regent's
Birthday exhibited 1819
Oil on canvas
1800 x 3346 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00502
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| This large, grand panorama of the Thames
is shown in the centre of the end wall of the gallery, a contemporary
celebration of England which faces the painting of the building of
the great city of Carthage hanging on the opposite end wall. It shows
the view from Richmond Hill, looking west towards Twickenham. Painted
after the end of the Napoleonic wars, it presents an Arcadian vision
of England, with an explicitly patriotic message in the reference
to the Prince Regent. The Prince's official birthday, 23 April, was
not only Turner's own birthday, but also the saint's day of St George,
the patron saint of England. |
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Lucy, Countess of Carlisle, and Dorothy Percy's
Visit to their Father Lord Percy, when under Attainder ...
exhibited 1831
Oil on oak panel
400 x 692 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00515
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| This is Turner's tribute to the seventeenth-century
painter, van Dyck; it is also the pair to his tribute to Watteau,
which hangs on the left of the same wall, the other side of Turner's
grand view of the Thames. Its composition is derived from paintings
by Van Dyck which Turner had seen at Petworth House, where he was
a frequent visitor at the invitation of his patron, the third Earl
of Egremont. The painting tells the story of one of Egremont's ancestors,
Henry, Lord Percy, shown with his daughters Lucy and Dorothy. They
had helped to obtain his release from the Tower of London, where he
had been imprisoned for sixteen years on suspicion of being involved
in the Gunpowder Plot. |
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Peace - Burial at Sea exhibited 1842
Oil on canvas
870 x 867 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00528
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| This painting is the companion to War - The
Exile and the Rock Limpet, shown on the floor in the opposite corner.
Whereas War is epitomised by Napoleon, Peace shows the deep and solemn
calm of the funeral of Turner's friend and colleague, the painter
David Wilkie. He had died on board ship while returning from the Middle
East in 1841, and was buried at sea off Gibraltar. Critics disliked
the harsh blackness of the ship's sails, but Turner defiantly claimed
'I only wish I had any colour to make them blacker'. |
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The Bay of Baiae, with Apollo and the Sibyl
exhibited 1823
Oil on canvas
1454 x 2375 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00505
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| This is the first of the five
grand paintings of tragic subjects hung along the long wall opposite
the fireplace in Turner's gallery. The story of Apollo and the Sibyl
comes from Metamorphoses, by the Roman poet Ovid. Apollo asks the
Sibyl to choose whatever she wishes. She asks for as many years of
life as there are grains of sand in her hand. But she refuses his
offer of eternal youth in return for her eternal love, and wastes
away until only her voice remains.
For Turner, her tragedy symbolised the fate of the splendours of
Italy and Rome itself.
This was the first Mediterranean landscape he painter after his
first visit to Rome. It vividly recalls the coast of Naples, and
the brilliant blue of the southern sky. Like Ovid's story it also
stresses the transience of physical beauty.
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The Sun of Venice Going to Sea exhibited
1843
Oil on canvas
616 x 921 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00535
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The title refers to the fishing
boat, the 'Sol del Venzia' (Sun of Venice), which is shown in the
centre of the painting, setting out at dawn. Turner exhibited this
picture with lines from his manuscript poem, The Fallacies of Hope,
which describe how the fishermen setting off into the lagoon in the
morning are heedless of 'the demon that in grim repose Expects his
evening prey'.
This, along with the image of sunset which is evoked by the title,
refers to the decline of Venice which so dismayed Turner, and reveals
his fatalistic view of history. |
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St Benedetto, Looking towards Fusina
exhibited 1843
Oil on canvas
622 x 927 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00534
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| This view of Venice is taken
from the mid-point of the Guidecca canal, looking west towards the
mainland at Fusina. However, Turner's reference to St Benedetto in
the title is puzzling, as none of the churches in this view are associated
with the saint; he may have been referring to a local tradition.
John Ruskin, writing about this painting, said that he thought
that much of the detail was imagined. However, he conceded that
Turner's picture was absolutely true in spirit to the place.
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The Tenth Plague of Egypt exhibited
1802
Oil on canvas
1435 x 2362 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00470
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This subject comes from the
Bible - the book of Exodus, chapter 12, verses 29 and 30 - which describes
how divine punishment is visited on the Egyptians:
'And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharoah that sat on his
throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon;
… And Pharoah rose up in the night, he, and all his servants,
and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Eygpt; for there
was not a house where there was not one dead.' |
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The Fighting Temeraire
before 1839
Oil on canvas
90.8 x 121.9 cm
National Gallery. Turner Bequest, 1856. NG524
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| This is Turner's lament for
the passing of the age of the great sailing ships. The Téméraire
was a grand ship who had played a distinguished role in Nelson's victory
at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and who now suffered the indignity
of being towed away to a ship breaking yard by a modern steam tug
bellowing smoke.
The novelist WM Thackeray described the painting as 'as grand a
painting as ever figured on the walls of any Academy, or came from
the easel of any painter. The old Téméraire is dragged
to her last home by a little, spiteful, diabolical steamer. A mighty
red sun, amidst a host of flaring clouds, sinks to rest on one side
of the picture, and illumines a river that seems interminable, and
a countless navy that fades away into such a wonderful distance
as never was painted before. The little demon of a steamer is belching
out a volume … of foul, lurid, red-hot, malignant smoke, paddling
furiously, and lashing up the water round about it; while behind
it (a cold grey moon looking down on it), slow, sad, and majestic,
follows the brave old ship, with death, as it were, written on her.'
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The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire
... exhibited 1817
Oil on canvas
1702 x 2388 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00499
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| This painting is shown in the
centre of the long wall opposite the fireplace, the focal point of
a series of five grand, tragic subjects. The fall of the once great
city of Carthage is symbolised by the setting sun; the full title
of the painting describes how the 'enervated' Carthaginians, desperate
for peace, surrendered their arms and their children to their enemy,
Rome.
Turner saw the rise and fall of great empires as a historical inevitability,
recently confirmed by the fall of Napoleon, but which also threatened
the current supremacy of the British empire. The pair to this painting,
Dido Building Carthage, is shown on the end wall of Turner's gallery.
Today the pair are separated: Dido Building Carthage hangs in the
National Gallery, while this painting is on display at Tate Britain.
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Story of Apollo and Daphne exhibited
1837
Oil on wood
1099 x 1988 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00520
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| This story comes from the Roman poet Ovid's
Metamorphosis. The god Apollo had mocked Cupid, but has now fallen
in love with Daphne. She runs away from him, and is saved by her father,
the river Peneus, who turns her into a laurel on his banks. In the
foreground Turner includes the dog chasing a hare, which Ovid compares
to Apollo chasing Daphne. |
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Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing
the Alps exhibited 1812
Oil on canvas
1460 x 2375 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00490
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| This picture shows Turner's ability to use
his own observation of natural effects in the representation of grand,
historical events. It combines memories of his experience of a blizzard
in Yorkshire with a dramatisation of the invasion of Italy by the
Carthaginian general Hannibal, in 218 BC. Hannibal's bold move was
intended to catch the Romans off guard. With an army of 50,000 infantry,
9,000 cavalry and 37 elephants he crossed Pyrenees, the river Rhône
and then, battling through the snow, crossed the Alps. The general
himself does not appear in Turner's picture. Instead, he focuses on
the distress of Hannibal's army and on the snow whirling through the
mountain pass and obscuring the sun, proclaiming the Carthaginians'
eventual, inevitable defeat. The picture underlines Turner's pessimistic
view of mankind, although it was popular with contemporary viewers
because it suggested a parallel between Hannibal and Napoleon, who
had crossed the Alps to invade Italy in 1797 - thus giving hope that
Napoleon too would eventually be defeated. |
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Rain, Steam and Speed
before 1844
Oil on canvas
90.8 x 121.9 cm.
National Gallery. Turner Bequest, 1856. NG538
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| When this painting was first shown at the Royal Academy a number of critics responded as though they could feel the speed of the locomotive as it rushed towards them at fifty
miles an hour. Very little detail is given of the surrounding landscape,
which appears as a blur of light and colour out of which the train
emerges, rivalling in speed the hare that runs along the railway lines
in front of it. |
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Apullia in Search of Appullus exhibited
1814
Oil on canvas
1485 x 2410 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00495
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| This painting tells the story, from Ovid's
Metamorphosis, of the Apulian shepherd, who was transformed into an
olive tree as a punishment for making fun of the dancing wood-nymphs.
Turner has invented the figure of Apullia, the shepherd's wife who,
while searching for her missing husband, is shown the olive tree on
which his name is carved. |
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Venice - Maria della Salute exhibited
1844
Oil on canvas
613 x 921 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00539
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| Turner clearly intended this painting to
be a detailed and recognisable image of the city of Venice. He shows
the church of Santa Maria della Salute in the centre, beyond the Dogana
(customs house), with the Guidecca canal on the left and the Zecca
(the Mint) on the right. In spite of this, when the painting was exhibited
a reviewer wrote that it was 'too evanescent for anything but a fairy
city.' |
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Venice Quay, Ducal Palace exhibited
1844
Oil on canvas
622 x 927 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00540
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| This late view of Venice shows the city almost
dissolving into its own reflections, though still discernable to the
left are the Doge's Palace, with the campanile behind it, and to the
right the church of S Zaccaria. |
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Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Burning
Fiery Furnace exhibited 1832
Oil on mahogany
support: 918 x 708 mm
Bequeathed by the artist 1856
N00517
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This picture was exhibited with a reference
to the Old Testament book of Daniel, which tells how Nebuchadnezzar
ordered three men to be cast into a fiery furnace for refusing to
worship a golden image. To the king's amazement, God made sure that
they were unharmed by the flames:
'Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace,
and spake, and said, Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego, ye servants of
the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Mesach
and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire… The Nebuchadnezzar
spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Mesach and Abednego,
who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in
him'. |
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Dido building Carthage 1815
Oil on canvas
155.6 x 231.8 cm.
National Gallery, London
NG498
Back to gallery
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| This is a pair to the painting which hangs
on the middle of the wall opposite the fireplace, of the Decline of
the Carthaginian Empire; together they demonstrate the rise and fall
of one of the world's great empires, which Turner saw as a historical
inevitability proved, in his own lifetime, by the rise and fall of
the Napoleonic empire. The two paintings, once shown together in Turner's
gallery, are now separated: Dido Building Carthage is on display at
Tate Britain while this painting, as Turner requested, hangs at the
National Gallery alongside the work of the old master painter whom
he most admired: Claude Lorrain. |
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